Microsoft has announced a new online certification program called the “Microsoft Professional Degree” which will cover a wide range of subjects in IT, beginning with the data science area.

The new program is currently only available in beta at the present time, the company said at its Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto, Canada, last month. The first certifications will be awarded this September, it added.

Microsoft’s website for the program reveals that the company consulted various data scientists and the company’s that employ them to work out what it believes are the core skills necessary to fulfill such a role. With those core skills in mind, Microsoft then created a curriculum for teaching said skills in both hands-on labs and also online. Once students successfully graduate from the program, they’ll be awarded a Microsoft Professional Degree in Data Science.

Because the program is still in beta, those who’re interested in signing up will have to wait a while. For now, Microsoft is allowing users to sign up for email notifications for when new slots on the course are available.

Those participating can audit any of the course, including the hands-on lab parts, completely free of charge. However, to actually get your hands on the certificate you’ll need to stump up the course fees and pass an exam at the end.

“To receive credit towards the Microsoft Professional Degree, you must purchase a Verified Certificate for each of the 10 courses you take in the curriculum,” the company said on the new website. “For the Data Science degree, the Verified Certificate for the orientation course is $25, and the Verified Certificate for ‘Statistical Thinking for Data Science and Analytics’ is $99. All other courses offer Verified Certificates for $49 each.”

For those taking the data science pilot course, it’s required that they’ll need to purchase a verified certificate for each course taken on edX.

Microsoft provides more information on the Professional Degree program via this FAQ page, which reminds us that data science is currently the only field for which certificates are available. Also, English is the only supported language at this time.

The launch of the new course comes three years after Microsoft upset a lot of folk in the industry by ditching its highest-level Masters certifications. Microsoft said at the time that it was considering ways in which it could make its certification program more sustainable, and this new program looks to be the result.

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